


No Quarry for Old Men

by EarthScorpion



Category: The Flintstones
Genre: stonepunk, what happens to the 50s family in the 10s?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 13:01:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11852112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthScorpion/pseuds/EarthScorpion
Summary: Flintstones, meet the Flintstones.  They're the modern Stone Age Family.Or at least they were, back in the Fifties.  Time passes.  Bedrock ain't doing so well these days.





	No Quarry for Old Men

Smoke drifted through the firelit cave. The barman stood behind the rock counter, polishing a shell-glass. Fred took a drag on his cigarette, exhaling a cloud of blue fumes.  
  
"Hit me," he said.  
  
"When you gonna pay your tab, Flintstone?" the other man said, making no gesture to move.  
  
"I'll pay you Friday, easy. Hit me."  
  
"You said that last week."  
  
"I get paid this week, okay? Now are you gonna give me my drink or not?"  
  
Bare feet came up behind him, and Barney Rubble sat down next to him. "What're you doing here, buddy?" he asked. "Tonight is bowling night. We're up against the Rocktown Rollers."  
  
"It's always bowling night, and we're always up against one set of guys or another," Fred said, cupping his hand around his cigarette and taking another drag.  
  
"This doesn't sound like you," Barney said, sounding worried.  
  
"Doesn't it? You know, I was at work today. I looked at the foreman pulling the tail of a bird so it screeched, and I thought to myself - what's the difference between the bird and me?"  
  
"... well, you ain't got feathers or wings and..."  
  
"Not like that, Barney. I know I'm not a bird. But I was standing there, using my dino to break rocks, and I realised - I ain't so different from the dino or the bird. I'm just something that the bosses use to get their work done. I bet they'd hire someone to stand behind a conch and scream if it was cheaper than a bird. I bet they'd just get men with hand-axes to break the rocks if they were cheaper than dinos. I bet they'd replace me with a trained raptor if it was cheaper. We're all just things they put in their systems. We're all between a rock and a hard place."  
  
Barney was silent. "Stop talking like that, you're gonna make me want a drink too," he said, trying to inject some levity and failing. "Come on, let's go bowling and that'll take your mind off things. Gotta let go of those worries, eh?"  
  
"Let go of my worries?!" Fred snapped, his previous morose mood suddenly flipped into anger. "You know what I heard? I heard we're gonna lose out on our contract to a new outfit. They're working in some super brand new tech, I hear. Copper tools."  
  
"It'll never catch on," Barney tried to reassure him.  
  
"They're looking to lay people off. Without the contract... they're getting rid of half the workforce. What're they gonna yabba-dabba-do to someone like me? I'm too old to learn about fancy high tech copper. I can't retrain. No one is gonna want me," Fred said, the rage gone again. "They'll get rid of me, just like they got rid of old Tricey when they upgraded to a brontosaurus. I gave them twenty years of my life and they'll get rid of me just like they do any animal that gets too old." Fred cupped his hand around his cigarette, the red glow reflecting in his eyes. "We're old dinosaurs, Barney. We're going extinct."


End file.
